
Jleto Cnglanb ^es&ete 
in tfje 

Cxpebtttcm against Houisbourg, 
1745 





NEW ENGLAND VESSELS 

IN THE 

EXPEDITION AGAINST LOUISBOURG, 

1745 



By 

HOWARD MILLAR CHAPIN 

(i 


[Reprinted from The New England Historical and Genealogical Register 
for January and April, 1923] 


BOSTON 

1923 


El 

.0 * 4 - (o 


TO MY WIFE 

WHOSE ENCOURAGEMENT 
AND ASSISTANCE HAS MADE 
MY RESEARCH WORK POSSIBLE 


Girt 

Cai-ae£«e I»st 

Jan i 8 1924 


NEW ENGLAND VESSELS IN THE EXPEDITION AGAINST 
LOUISBOURG, 1745 


The expedition of 1745 against Louisbourg is of particular interest, 
not only on account of the brilliant achievement of the capture of 
one of the world’s strongest fortresses by an ill-trained and ill- 
equipped Colonial army, but likewise because of the size and success 
of the Colonial naval contingent. The largest naval force that had 
been raised in the American Colonies convoyed the army, and, in con¬ 
junction with the British fleet under Commodore Warren, blockaded 
Louisbourg. These Colonial vessels, as truly American as their suc¬ 
cessors of subsequent centuries, were a sort of prophecy of American 
prowess on the seas to come. The hard, diligent, unceasing labors 
and trying experiences of these early seamen have been in a sense 
thrown into a shadow by the more showy exploits of the land forces, 
whose aims could nevertheless not have been attained save through 
the assistance of the Colonial fleet, which convoyed the troops, 
assisted in the blockade, acted as scouts, guards, and messengers, 
and kept open the line of communication for supplies and ammunition 
from New England to the army in the field. 

The American Navy did not spring forth full-fledged at the out¬ 
break of the Revolution, like Pallas Athene from the head of Zeus. 
Its roots go back to the Colonial privateersmen and the naval expe¬ 
ditions against the French and Spanish. An outline of the naval 
manoeuvres of the most extensive and important of these expeditions 
is here for the first time drawn together from scattered and frag¬ 
mentary contemporary sources. While the account is in no sense 
exhaustive and final, yet it presents for the first time in convenient 
form the records of the movements of the vessels and will enable 
information discovered in the future to be easily checked and 
verified.* 

The date and place of sailing of the first Colonial naval contingent 
in the secret expedition against Louisbourg in 1745 seems to be still 
shrouded in almost as much mystery as it was when it occurred. 
Governor Shirley on Apr. 3 said that the six vessels had sailed 
about three weeks before; but, as some sailed before Mar. 13 and 

♦This account of the movements of the Colonial vessels in the Louisbourg Expedition of 1745 
is based primarily on the printed diaries of Rev. Adonijah Bid well, Chaplain of the Fleet (Reoisteb, 
voL 27, pp. 153-160), Benjamin Cleaves (*&., vol. 66, pp. 113-124), Sir William Peppered ( Pro¬ 
ceedings of the American Antiquarian Society, New Series, vol. 20, pp. 141-176), Dudley Bradstreet 
(Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society, vol. 31, pp. 417-446), Benjamin Stearns 
(ib., vol. 42, pp. 135-144), and Rev. Joseph Emerson (ib., vol. 44, pp. 65-84), the Peppered 
Papers (Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society, Series 6, vol. 10), the Letters of Capt. 
George Curwen (Historical Collections of the Essex Institute, vol. 3, pp. 186-188), the Letters and 
Journal of Benjamin Craft (ib., vol. 6, pp. 181-194), the Journal of Lieut. Daniel Giddings (ib., 
vol. 48, pp. 293-304), the Letters and Journal of Maj. Seth Pomeroy (in Trumbud’s History of 
Northampton, Massachusetts, vol. 2), Roger Wolcott’s Journal (Collections of the Connecticut 
Historical Society, vol. 1, pp. 131-161), and various anonymous manuscript diaries in the library 
of the Massachusetts Historical Society. Other contemporary sources, such as the Massachusetts 
Provincial records and archives, the Suffolk County Court files, the Boston News-Letter, etc., 
have been used to substantiate and amplify the items in the diaries. 


4 


three sailed on Mar. 16, it is clear that Shirley was speaking roughly, 
combining the two contingents and approximating the date. 

On Mar. 6, 1744/5, the snow* Prince of Orange, 14 guns,f Capt. 
Joseph Smithurst, and the ship Fame , 24 guns, Capt. Thomas Thomp¬ 
son, were ordered to cruise in consort under Capt. Smithurst/s orders. 
The Prince of Orange probably sailed from Boston in company with the 
brigantine J Boston Packet, 12 guns, Capt. William Fletcher, to Cape 
Ann Harbor, where they were joined by the Fame. The Fame and 
the Ccesar had, in the latter part of February, been ordered to pro¬ 
ceed from Newport, R. I., to the place of rendezvous, then specified 
as Cape Ann. These two vessels, usually called by contemporary 
writers the “Rhode Island ship” and the “Rhode Island snow/’ 
were privateers, and both belonged to Philip Wilkinson and Daniel 
Ayrault, Jr., of Newport. Thomas Hutchinson, on behalf of the 
Province of Massachusetts, went to Newport and chartered these 
vessels for this expedition, and Newport merchants subscribed some 
£8000 towards the hire of the Ccesar and probably also of the Fame. 
The same captains and crews were retained. The Fame was a ship 
of 250 tons and the Ccesar a snow of 130 tons. Each of these vessels 
carried as many swivel guns as carriage guns. At this period it was 
customary to carry as many, if not more, swivel guns as carriage 
guns, although only carriage guns were reckoned in descriptions of 
the vessels. Many of the transports carried swivel guns, and the 
larger merchant vessels carried carriage guns as a matter of pre¬ 
caution. The Prince of Orange, called the “Province snow,” and the 
Boston Packet, sometimes called the “Boston galley,”§ were owned 
by the Province, the latter having been purchased for use in this 
expedition. 

The Prince of Orange and the vessels with her were sighted off 
Brown Banks, about 90 leagues from Boston, on Mar. 15. The 
“Habitant” says that two of the English Colonial cruisers were 
sighted off Louisbourg on Mar. 14,|| but this date is too early. On 
the other hand Parkman says that the cruisers first arrived there on 
Mar. 25, which is four days later than the time when the Molineux 
actually arrived off Louisbourg. 

The snow Ccesar, 14 guns, Capt. John Griffith, was ordered on 
Mar. 12 to impress 20 seamen and then to follow the ships that had 
already sailed from Cape Ann under Captain Smithurst’s command. 
On the next day, Mar. 13, this order was countermanded, and the 
Ccesar was ordered to sail in company with the Massachusetts and 
to act under Commodore Tyng’s orders. If the Ccesar was at Cape 

*A snow differs from a brig in that it has a trysail mast just abaft and close to the mainmast, 
which carries a trysail on a gaff and boom. The trysail mast goes into the maintop, and the try¬ 
sail is furled without lowering the gaff. 

tBidwell has been followed in regard to the armaments. He is correct in five out of the six 
cases that can be verified. 

JThe terms brigantine and brig were used interchangeably at this period, the latter being an 
abbreviation or corruption of the former, and were applied to the sort of vessel now known as 
a brig. 

§A galley carries its guns on a continuous or flush deck, unlike a frigate, which has deep waists 
and high poops. Cf. Preble in Register, vol. 22, p. 396. 

||The Lettre d'un Habitant, p. 36, reads: “Mars 14. Ce fut le quatorze, que nous vimes leg 
premiers Navires ennemis, ils n’etoient encore que deux et nous les primes d’abord pour des Vais- 
eeaux Francais.” 


5 


Ann at this time, she soon went to Boston, where she certainly 
was three days later.* 

Commodore Edward Tyng, in the ship Massachusetts, a new 
frigate of 22 guns, his flagship,f sailed from Boston about noon on 
Mar. 16, in company with the ship Molineux, 24 guns, Capt. Jonathan 
Snelling, and the snow Ccesar. The Massachusetts had been purchased 
by the Province, while she was still on the stocks, and the Molineux 
had been chartered for the expedition. Cleaves says that Tyng sailed 
from Boston on Mar. 12; but, if this is so, either he went only to 
Nantasket or else he returned. 

The Molineux, on the voyage to Cape Breton, lost sight of the 
Massachusetts and the Ccesar on Mar. 18, in a fog. The next day 
she was on George's Banks, and sighted the Massachusetts again on 
the following day and Louisbourg Harbor on the 20th. 



The ship Massachusetts, enlarged from a contemporary engraving of 
1745. Curiously enough the engraver mistook her rating of 20 guns 
for a broadside of 20 guns. 

One shudders to think of the hardships of the crews of these little 
vessels, tossed about in the stinging cold winds of the North Atlantic 
in early spring, amid icebergs and ice fields, beaten upon by snow, 
sleet, and chilling rain, and now and then shut in by a dense fog, 
all the while off a hostile coast and with scarcely any of our modern 
aids to navigation. 

Upon reaching Cape Breton Island the fleet stood on and off, 

♦The briefs in the case of Notre Dame de la Deliverance state that the Massachusetts frigate went 
to Cape Ann to pick up the Ccesar, evidently following the original orders rather than 
the events. These briefs are often inaccurate in regard to details not pertinent to their arguments. 

fShe is often called the Massachusetts frigate, doubtless to distinguish her from the Provinoe, 
sloop Massachusetts, Captain Saunders. A frigate is a ship of war, usually of two decks, light built 
and designed for swift sailing. 




6 


blockading icebound Louisbourg, and waiting for the delayed 
arrival of the land forces under the convoy of Captains Rous and 
Saunders. 

On Mar. 17 two of the Massachusetts armed sloops, the Resolution, 
often called the Resolute, 10 guns, Capt. David Donahue,* which was 
owned by Thomas Tillebrown, William Bowdoin, Jacob Griggs, and 
Andrew Hall, and was leased to the Province for £1200 per month, 
old tenor, and the Bonetta, 6 guns, Capt. Robert Becket, sometimes 
called Beckwith, f preceded the main body of the Massachusetts 
contingent, sailing from Boston and apparently touching at Pis- 
cataqua, and, while coasting along Nova Scotia, touched at Knowles 
Harbor or Owl’s Head. Upon seeing some Indians Captain Donahue 
hoisted French colors on his own sloop and French colors with English 
colors under them on the Bonetta, so that the Indians thought that 
it was a French privateer with a prize. Three of the Indians came 
on board to trade, and Captain Donahue immediately put them in 
irons. From these Indians it was learned that the French intended 
to besiege Port Royal, now Annapolis Royal. These two sloops 
with their prisoners reached Canso, the French Canseau. on Mar. 25. 

The Molineux came down from Cape Breton to Canso, where 
she arrived Mar. 26. The land forces were expected there at this 
time, but only the Resolution and Bonetta had as yet arrived. The 
Molineux stayed at Canso during a few days of bad weather, and 
sailed on the afternoon of Mar. 29 for Louisbourg. 

On Mar. 15 the New Hampshire Colony sloop Abigail, 10 guns, 
Capt. John Fernald, with several transports, sailed from Portsmouth 
to Newcastle, and on Mar. 21 the entire New Hampshire fleet of 
twelve vessels sailed from Newcastle, for Canso, where they arrived 
Mar. 31. 

Meanwhile the Massachusetts soldiers had been embarking at 
Charlestown, Boston, and elsewhere, and the vessels had been 
assembling at King’s Roads, now Nantasket, in Boston Harbor. 
Three vessels arrived there on or before, probably on, Mar. 17, 
thirteen on the 18th, two on the 19th, two on the 20th, ten on the 
21st, ten on the 22d, eight on the 23d and seven on the 24th. Cleaves 
says that fifty-two sailed on the 24th, thus leaving apparently three 
at Boston. We know that two were left. 

At four o’clock in the afternoon on Sunday, Mar. 24, the first 
Massachusetts contingent of some 2800 men, in fifty-one vessels, 
under the convoy of the snow Shirley, often called the Shirley galley, 
24 guns, Capt. John Rous, sailed from King’s Roads. George White- 
field, the evangelist, had given the expedition somewhat the aspect 
of a crusade by suggesting as a motto for their flag: Nil desperandum 
Christo duce. 

They reached Sheepscot on the 26th. The second contingent, of 
200 men, sailed on the 26th from Boston. At nine in the morning on 
the 29th the fleet of sixty-three sail weighed anchor at Sheepscot 
and proceeded on its way. A slight accident occurred, one of the 
sloops running on a rock. In addition to the Shirley, the fleet was 

♦David Donahue was appointed captain of the Resolution Feb. 27, 1744/6. 

fShefBeld, p. 16, calls him Beckwith of Connecticut. 


7 


guarded by three other armed vessels, the Province sloop Massa¬ 
chusetts, 10 guns, Capt. Thomas Saunders, a sloop of 8 guns, Captain 
Swan, and a sloop of 6 guns, Captain Bush ( alias Bosch). The names 
and the captains of only a few of the fifty-nine transports which made 
up the fleet have as yet been discovered. 

The Humming Bird was commanded by Captain Honiwell, the 
Hannah and Mary by Capt. David Carmida, the schooner Fish- 
hawk by Captain Newmarch, the schooner Sally by Capt. Joseph 
Smith, and the schooner Seaflower by Captain Wadlin. There is 
said to have been a sloop Seaflower , commanded by Capt. Jona¬ 
than Sayward of York, Me. (Burrage, Maine at Louisbourg, pages 
22, 86.) There was a schooner Elizabeth and also a sloop Elizabeth. 
The three despatch packets were commanded by Capt. Moses 
Bennett (who gave up his command of the Bonetta to go into this 
service), Capt. Joseph Smith, and Capt. Michael Hodge. These 
vessels were to ply between Boston and General Headquarters. 
Captain Loring and Captain Giddings each commanded a schooner. 
Other transports were commanded by Mr. Dodd, Captain Stone, 
Captain Lovett, Captain West, Mr. Hammond, Mr. Allen, Captain 
Daggett, Robert White, Samuel Barnes, and Captain Mitchell, the 
last-named in a sloop owned by Nathaniel Sparhawk. Captain 
Stone’s vessel and a Captain Adams’s vessel were left behind and 
did not reach Sheepscot with the Shirley. 

As might be expected at that season of the year, the fleet was 
scattered by the bad weather that was encountered on the voyage. 
A northeast storm raged all day on the 30th and through the follow¬ 
ing night. Then during Sunday, Mar. 31, the vessels tossed about 
all day in a calm, with high, sickly swells left over from the storm. 
Another storm raged all day Monday. 

According to Dr. Usher Parsons (Life of Pepperell, page 57) some 
of the transports arrived at Canso on Apr. 1. Certainly the sloop 
Massachusetts , Captain Saunders, and six transports with her arrived 
on the 2d. The Shirley , carrying Pepperell and Rous, with twenty 
vessels, arrived on the 4th. On that day the ship Massachusetts 
reached Canso from Louisbourg. 

Meanwhile the Molineux sighted a vessel on Apr. 1 and gave 
chase. The chase lasted all day, and the vessel put into Canso. 
Captain Snelling on that account considered the vessel a friend. 
The Molineux lay off the harbor that night, but got becalmed in 
the morning when she tried to enter the harbor. At least seventeen 
vessels could be seen in the harbor. When the wind sprang up later 
in the day the Molineux put to sea. On Apr. 3 she spoke the Prince 
of Orange , the Coesar, and the Fame , part of the fleet blockading 
Louisbourg. There were rumors of an incipient mutiny among the 
crew of the Molineux on the 4th. She put back into Canso on the 
following morning about 8 o’clock. 

The Boston Packet , Captain Fletcher, about 15 leagues east of 
Cape Breton, captured on Apr. 2 a sloop loaded with rum, wine, 
brandy, and indigo from Martinique, and brought her into Canso on 
the forenoon of the 5th. This was the first prize taken in the expe¬ 
dition, and was usually spoken of as the “Martinico sloop.” The 


8 


Molineux and the schooner Hannah and Mary reached Canso on this 
day (Apr. 5). Pomeroy says that there were sixty-eight vessels at 
Canso on this date, and Craft says that on the 7th there were five 
vessels cruising off Cape Breton. These were the Fame, Ccesar, Prince 
of Orange, Molineux, and the ship Massachusetts. The two last- 
mentioned, the Molineux and the ship Massachusetts, sailed from 
Canso for Cape Breton Apr. 7, and were joined by the Boston Packet 
°u ! following day. Seven more transports arrived at Canso on 
the 8th and 9th.* Nine more transports, the last, except for one, 
of those battered about and delayed by the storm, came in on the 
11th. These included the Humming Bird, Captain Honiwell, Captain 
Lovett s vessel, and Captain West's vessel. One diarist states that 
twelve transports arrived on the 8th and twelve more on the 11th. 
Of these, three reached Island Harbor on or before Apr. 9. The 
transport that Cleaves was on reached there at 6 P.M. on the 9th. 
The Resolution and two transports arrived at Island Harbor on the 
9th. On the 10th nine vessels sailed from Island Harbor and reached 
Canso at 2 o'clock in the afternoon of the 11th. 

The prize “Martinico sloop," which had been captured by Fletcher 
m the Boston Packet, sailed for Boston with despatches Apr. 11. 
ohe reached Portsmouth, N. H., on the 20th, sailed again the next 
day, and reached Boston Apr. 22. Apparently it was planned to send 
?<iur ^ p - cate copy despatches by a brigantine, in case the 

. ■‘Hartimco sloop should be taken by the French or lost at sea, but 
instead the duplicates were finally sent by the first packet, Capt. 
Moses Bennett, which sailed about Apr. 28. Bennett probably reached 
Boston about May 4 and probably brought back Shirley's letter of 
M ? ! vl 5 A d0ubtless . arr . iving at Cha Peaurouge Bay about the 11th. 

^ j ^ Griddings and some other soldiers in a whaleboat 
pursued aFrench shallop off the mouth of Canso Harbor, but without 
success. Captain Donahue in the Resolution was sent to the Gut of 
Canso on the 12th, where about 10 o'clock on the following morning, 
at Doe Island, he captured eight Indians, of whom it is said that 
one was a chief and one a queen, and brought them back prisoners 

to Canso on Apr. 14. Captains Cobb and 1 B-" were sent 

0 Y er . towards St. Peter's on the 15th, with twenty-four men, in two 
whaleboats, but ice prevented their landing. These two captains 

were probably from the land forces, and Captain B- was 

perhaps Ca,pt. Israel Bayley, of the same regiment as Capt. Silvanus 
Cobb. On Apr. 15 the Molineux, while cruising off Cape Breton 
Island, was surrounded by vast cakes of ice, some of them nearly 
50 feet thick. Such were the hardships encountered by these hardy 
Colonial sailors. 

On the next day, Apr. 16, the Boston Packet and the Molineux 
chased two French brigantines. One escaped, and the other was 
overtaken by the Molineux amidst the ice and fog, about 10 leagues 
trom Canso. The Molineux fired three guns at her, whereupon the 
brigantine struck her colors, without offering any resistance. She 


thlf“J? fT tion tf 1 ® arrival of aQ y transports on the 8th. but one diarist states 

ipril CZhiyen M ° nday * ev0nia *- whioh was tho 8a > <* 




9 


proved to be the Victory , 6 guns, formerly commanded by Captain 
Loring,* and captured by the French in 1744. She had a cargo of 
rum, molasses, coffee, sugar, chocolate, and syrup, valued at £25,000, 
and was bound from Martinique for Louisbourg. She had recently 
captured two Cape Ann schooners, what to-day would doubtless 
be called Gloucester fishermen. The Boston Packet convoyed the 
Victory into Canso on Apr. 17. 

On that day a vessel was sighted off Canso, and Captains Donahue, 
Becket, and Swan went in chase.t It being calm, eleven whaleboats 
towed the Resolution out of the harbor. At dawn on the 18th the 
Molineux captured a schooner which had been taken by the French 
brigantine St. Jean, 8 guns, about a week before. After taking the 
schooner, the Molineux gave chase to the St. Jean and followed 
her all day. Before the Molineux came up with her, however, the 
French vessel was overtaken and captured by the Resolution, Captain 
Donahue, a league or two from Canso. About 6 o’clock in the after¬ 
noon Captains Donahue and Swan brought the prize into Canso, 
and sailed again before dusk. Capt. William Adams was a prisoner 
on board of the brigantine, and reported that his vessel, the schooner 
St. Peter , while carrying despatches from Boston to Newfoundland, 
had been captured by the St. Jean on Apr. 12. Captain Brimble- 
comb was also a prisoner on the St. Jean, his vessel having been 
captured by her. 

According to Stearns, Captains Donahue and Becket captured a 
Cape Ann schooner that had been taken by the French the day 
before and brought her into Canso on Apr. 18. This is doubtless 
identical with the schooner taken by the Molineux, mentioned above. 
The discrepancies in the different accounts are no greater than one 
might expect to find in reports circulated in camp. Cleaves (who is 
sometimes contradictory and in some instances a day later than other 
diarists) and another diarist state that two recaptured schooners 
were brought in on the 19th, doubtless referring to this schooner, 
which appears to have been Captain Brimblecomb’s, and to the one 
taken by the Prince of Orange and mentioned later, which came in 
during the afternoon. The Bonetta, Captain Becket, sailed on the 
19th, but found nothing but an iceberg and returned about 2 P.M. 

No sooner had the Molineux come up with the Resolution and the 
St. Jean, then reports of heavy cannon fire were heard. The Moli¬ 
neux followed the sound, and soon joined the ship Massachusetts, the 
Fame, and the Ccesar, who were fighting the French frigate Renommee, 
36 guns, Captain Kersaint. This ship had been sighted off Canso 
Harbor on the 18th, and the Shirley, Captain Rous, the sloop Massa¬ 
chusetts, Captain Saunders, and the Abigail, Captain Fernald, had 
been sent in chase about 3 o’clock in the afternoon. The Renommte 
escaped in the thick weather and darkness, but was chased again 
by the fleet in the morning. Stearns states that she was chased by 
nine Colonial cruisers, and escaped. Commodore Tyng of the ship 
Massachusetts wrote the following account of the engagement: 

♦See also Boston News-Letter for Apr. 5, Apr. 18, and May 9, 1745. 

fPepperell says Captain Donahue and a schooner, but Pepperell is not always accurate 
in regard to rigs, and oalls the Prince of Orange a schooner. George Curwen, in a letter dated Apr. 
17, but perhaps finished later, says Donahue and Swan of Marblehead. 


10 


“The ship which we chased came up very fast till within gunshot. Twice 
he struck his colors. Capt. Griffith in the Ccesar came across him and 
they exchanged a broadside with each other. Then Capt. Smithurst [in 
the Prince of Orange ] came across him and did the same. Captain Fletcher 
[in the Boston Packet] also; and if Capt. Snelling [in the Molineux ] had 
tacked in time, as the chase was running down towards him, we should have 
taken him. I believe that the chase flung something overboard, which gave 
him the start of us again. We were not much more than a gunshot from 
him till it was quite dark, and then had chased him so far that I was afraid 
of running ashore, and in tacking lost sight of him. For the rest, I refer 
your Honor to Capt. Rous [of the Shirley]. I expected he would keep 
in with the shore, so I kept in close by the ice the whole night. The Rhode 
Island men behave extraordinary well, though their vessels [the Fame and 
the Ccesar] sail very bad. They are quite out of wood and water and we 
have spared them all we can.” 

The Shirley fired 115 guns at the Renommee in this encounter. 
Captains Fernald and Saunders commanded the other two vessels 
that made up the nine mentioned as being in the chase. 

On Apr. 19 Captain Smithurst ; s mate brought into Canso a Cape 
Ann schooner that had been recently taken by the Prince of Orange 
off Chapeaurouge Bay (Gabarus Bay), and Captain Saunders 
returned. Captain Swan sailed at 3 P.M. Captain Fernald, in the 
New Hampshire Colony sloop Abigail, recaptured the schooner 
St. Peter on the 18th off Chapeaurouge Bay, and brought her into 
Canso on April 20.* Pomeroy states that this was the sixth prize 
brought into Canso. 

The Resolution, Captain Donahue, returned to Canso on the 20th, 
and, carrying thirty soldiers and an officer and accompanied by the 
Bonetta, Captain Becket, sailed about 6 P.M. on Apr. 21 from Canso 
for the Bay of Vert, where they were to cruise for the purpose of 
intercepting and capturing provision vessels, and had orders not to 
land. On this day, also, Lieut. Col. Edward Evelith of the Fifth 
Massachusetts Regiment was sent, with seventy men, two schooners 
(or sloops, according to one diarist), one of which was perhaps the 
schooner Fishhawk, and five whaleboats, against the town of St. 
Peter's, on Cape Breton Island. On Apr. 21 Joseph Emerson, 
chaplain of the Molineux, wrote: 

“We saw a sail, gave chase, came up about 11 o’clock, found her to be a 
sloop who just before we came up retook a schooner which the brig took 
sometime ago from Boston with stores for the army & wine for the General.” 

The Shirley returned to Canso Apr. 21. On Apr. 22 the Molineux 
and the ship Massachusetts were cruising near each other off Cape 
Breton. On this day H.M.S. Eltham, 40 guns, Capt. Philip Durell, 
arrived at Canso from Piscataqua, after a voyage of six days. She 
was the first of His Majesty’s vessels to join the Colonial forces. 
When she received her orders to join the expedition, she was just 
on the point of sailing for England as convoy for the mast ships, 
as the vessels were called that carried to Europe the American timber 
that was to be used for vessels’ masts. At 6 o’clock in the evening 

.♦According to Cleaves, at 3 o’clock, Apr. 21. Perhaps he means the preceding afternoon, as 
this item is followed by accounts of what happened in the morning. Cf. his record in regard to 
Brimblecomb. 


11 


one of the transports, which had been given up as lost, arrived at 
Canso in good condition. 

It was at first planned to add the St. Jean to the fleet of Colonial 
cruisers and to send her out in search of the St. Peter, but later this 
was decided to be inadvisable. She was, however, ordered to carry- 
water, wood, and provisions from Canso to the fleet off Louisbourg 
on Apr. 22. That night a disorderly affray occurred on board the 
brigantine Victory , and her commander, Capt. John Friend, was on 
that account replaced by Capt. William Adams. 

On the 23d Lieutenant Colonel Evelith returned to Canso from 
St. Peter’s, where he had burned some French houses. He brought 
with him a French prize sloop laden with wood. They had captured 
another sloop, but were forced to abandon her, and a third sloop 
that they chased ran ashore. 

Commodore Peter Warren, with H.M.S. Superb , 60 guns, Capt. 
Richard Tiddeman, H.M.S. Launceston, 40 guns, Capt. Warwick 
Calmady, and H.M.S. Mermaid, 40 guns, Capt. James Douglas, 
touched at Canso on Apr. 23, in the forenoon, and then proceeded to 
Cape Breton to join the Colonial cruisers blockading Louisbourg. 
The Abigail, Captain Fernald, was sent to blockade the harbor of 
St. Peter’s. 

On the morning of Apr. 24 the three men-of-war under Commodore 
Warren joined the fleet off Louisbourg. The Boston Packet took a 
schooner loaded with wood, which was formerly commanded by 
Captain Donnel and had been captured by the French off Annapolis 
Basin in 1744. The Fame captured a sloop that ran ashore while 
attempting to escape. She also was loaded with wood. In the 
afternoon a shallop was taken. These vessels came from St. Peter’s 
and were captured at Margaret’s Bay. 

It is now necessary to go back in point of time to Apr. 14, when 
the Connecticut contingent, consisting of five sloops, two brigantines,* 
and one schooner, eight vessels in all, seven transports and the 
Connecticut Colony guard sloop Defence, f 12 guns, commanded by 
Captain Prentice, sailed from New London at 11 o’clock Sunday 
morning. It should be noted that both the Massachusetts and the 
Connecticut contingents sailed on Sunday. The Rhode Island 
Colony sloop Tartar, a brig of 14 guns, Capt. Daniel Fones, accom¬ 
panied the Connecticut fleet as an additional safeguard. They reached 
Holmes Hole (Vineyard Haven) on the 13th. Nantucket on the 15th, 
and Cape Sable on the 21st. One of the transports was the schooner 
Charming Molly, Captain Byles. Another Connecticut transport was 
the sloop Diamond, Capt. Ephraim Doane, and five others appear to 
have been commanded by Captains Coit, Robbins, Mumford, Tal- 
cott, and Lais. It is possible that some of these were not in this 
fleet, but cajme up to Louisbourg later with reenforcements or supplies. 
Capt. Aaron Bull commanded a Connecticut transport sloop which 

♦Cleaves says that one of the Connecticut vessels was a snow. 

fFrancis Parkman in the Atlantic Monthly for March, 1891, p. 322, wrote: “two sloops hired in 
Connecticut of 16 guns each.” Burrage, p. 22, follows Parkman. He states also that there were 
13 vessels in the fleet, viz., Massachusetts, 9; Connecticut, 2; Rhode Island, 1; and New Hamp¬ 
shire, 1. There were in reality 15 armed vessels, viz., Massachusetts, 12 (of which 2 were hired 
from Rhode Island owners); Connecticut, 1; Rhode Island, 1; and New Hampshire, 1. 


12 


arrived at Louisbourg on Aug. 10. This vessel may have been in the 
fleet which sailed on Apr. 14 and may have returned to Connecticut 
in May, June, or July. 

The French cruiser Renommee was sighted by the Connecticut fleet 
on Apr. 23 off Pope’s Head. The Tartar left the fleet and went out 
to meet the Renommee, firing two bow chasers at her. The French 
ship replied with two broadsides of at least 60 cannon. The Tartar , 
greatly inferior in armament, lead the Renommte away from the 
transports, which were thereby enabled to reach Tor Bay, N. S., 
in safety. The Tartar’s jib halliards were shot away, and Captain 
Fones found it necessary to cut down the waist of the Tartar in 
order to make her sail better. After an eight hour’s chase to wind¬ 
ward the Tartar proved herself a better sailer than the Renommte 
and escaped in the night. 

The Connecticut transports and the Defence reached Canso on 
Apr. 24 at 11 A.M. (or, according to Cleaves, at 9 A.M.), and reported 
that the Tartar had probably been captured by the French ship. 
At noon Captain Swan sailed from Canso with despatches for 
Commodore Warren. 

On Apr. 25, at 5 o’clock, the snow Caesar, Captain Griffith, 
arrived at Canso from Cape Breton, with news that the ice had 
gone from Louisbourg. She took on wood and water. At 1 o’clock 
in the afternoon the Tartar fired five guns and came to anchor at 
Canso, only slightly damaged by her combat with the Renommte. 
Captain Fernald returned from his expedition against St. Peter’s, 
having touched at the Isle de Madame. On this day, off Louis¬ 
bourg, a French ship of 14 guns, laden with wine, etc., escaped 
Commodore Warren in the fog, but six hours later was attacked by 
the ship Massachusetts. She, however, again escaped in the fog and 
night, and got into Louisbourg. The Massachusetts lost one man in 
the engagement. 

On Apr. 26 Captain Swan reached Canso, with news that the fleet 
off Louisbourg had captured three French vessels two days before. 
Lieutenant General Pepperell transferred his headquarters from the 
Shirley to the sloop Massachusetts, Captain Saunders’s vessel. Cap¬ 
tain Rous in the Shirley and Captain Fones in the Tartar sailed from 
Canso in quest of the Renommee. They cruised to the westward, and 
fell in with the Renommee to the west of George’s Banks, where 
they attacked her, but, being a better sailer, she escaped. The 
Shirley continued westward, and reached Nantasket on May 2. 

Between 5 and 7 o’clock in the morning of Apr. 29 the New Eng¬ 
land armada sailed from Canso, in four divisions of transports, under 
the convoy of “an armed snow and two armed sloops.” Light winds 
prevented their reaching Chapeaurouge Bay before night, as had 
been hoped. Commodore Warren and some of his fleet, which now 
included the Colonial cruisers as well as His Majesty’s ships, were 
sighted in the afternoon, and a brigantine laden with supplies was 
sent out to them. Colonel Moulton, with four or five vessels under 
convoy of the Abigail, Captain Fernald, made an attack on St. 
Peter’s with 270 men. 

After a day and night at sea the fleet and army under Pepperell 


13 


arrived at Chapeaurouge Bay about 10 o’clock in the morning on 
Apr. 30. Meanwhile the Resolution and the Bonetta, preceding the 
transports, had destroyed the fishing villages of St. Pierre,* St. 
Esprit, and Fourche. Commodore Warren’s men-of-war bombarded 
the forts of Louisbourg, while the troops disembarked 10 miles away 
at Chapeaurouge Bay, their landing being covered by the gunfire 
from the vessels of Captains Fletcher, Saunders, and Bush. The 
village at Lorembec was also destroyed. 

In the morning of Apr. 30 a French ship was chased by some of 
the cruisers into Manaton (Menadon) Bay, eastward from Louis¬ 
bourg. The Molineux, the Fame , the Launceston, and the Eltham 
were in the chase, and the Molineux finally got close enough to attack 
and capture the French vessel.| She was the Marie de Grdce, 14 
guns, from Granville for Louisbourg, laden with supplies. Commo¬ 
dore Warren asked Pepperell for several fast-sailing schooners to 
carry messages, three schooners to attend him off Louisbourg, some 
for fishing, a fast schooner to send to Newfoundland with despatches, 
and Captain Bush’s sloop to blockade the mouth of the harbor at 
night. Pepperell replied that he would send such vessels as soon as 
they were unloaded. He also suggested that Commodore Warren 
should join with Brig. Gen. Samuel Waldo and himself and fit out a 
brigantine as a privateer on their own account. This plan, however, 
does not appear to have been carried out. The Defence and the 
brigantine referred to, which was valued at £1910, old tenor, at 
Canso, and which had a cargo of clothing for the sailors, together 
with Mr. Dodd’s vessel, took prisoners and despatches out to the 
fleet on May 2. The Defence returned and anchored in Chapeaurouge 
Bay that night. The Boston Packet chased a sloop and a schooner 
into one of the bays east of Louisbourg, but they escaped because 
there were no light-draft schooners to go after them. 

The Defence cruised off Louisbourg on May 3. Five of the desired 
schooners reached Commodore Warren on the 4th, and were soon 
followed by two more and by one to take despatches to Newfoundland. 
The fifth schooner, the Fishhawk , Captain Newmarch, sailed from 
Chapeaurouge Bay on the 4th. On this day the fleet drew up in line 
of battle in front of Louisbourg Harbor, and the ship Massachusetts, 
the Prince of Orange , the Fame, the Defence, the Eltham, and at least 
one schooner sailed eastward in search of two ships said to be in a 
harbor there. 

Meanwhile Captain Donahue had been repulsed in the Bay of 
Vert, and Capt. Richard Jacques, who accompanied him, had been 
killed. In this expedition the Resolution went as far as the Isle de 
St. Jean, where a landing party burnt a considerable number of 
houses, destroyed the cattle, and frightened the inhabitants, thus 
deterring them from sending help or supplies to Louisbourg. Return- 

♦Perhaps a fishing village on Isle St. Pierre, evidently not the town of St. Peter’s. The Boston 
News-Letter for May 23 says that the fisheries at Forechetto and Lawrembeque were destroyed. 

fThe logs of the Launceston and the Mermaid enter this capture under the date of May 1. This 
is due to the fact that the nautical day in a ship’s log always runs from noon of one day to noon 
of the next, and is called by the calendar day on which it ends, so that any events occurring in the 
afternoon or evening are entered under the date of the following day. Bradstreet records a rumor 
that two supply ships were taken. 


14 


i ng with two small prize sloops, the Resolution reached Canso on 
or before May 4. 

The expedition under Colonel Moulton destroyed the town of 
St. Peter’s, burnt four schooners, and then returned with one prize 
schooner to Canso, where they turned the prisoners over to the 
garrison there. Then they proceeded eastward, and joined the mam 
body of the army at Chapeaurouge Bay on the 5th. Captain Donahue 
at Canso on May 7 discovered and frustrated a plot among the 
French prisoners to carry off the brigantine Victory. 

The second of the four supply vessels mentioned by Shirley 
seems to have been the sloop Good Intent, Captain Bradford, which 
left Boston about Apr. 24 and reached Canso May 8, having run 
ashore at the mouth of the harbor the previous night and lost her 
boom. The third vessel was the sloop Philadelphia, Capt. John 
Stinson, which sailed from Boston about Apr. 26. The ‘ fourth 
sloop” doubtless came in the fleet that was convoyed by the Shirley. 
On May 8 the Resolution, Captain Donahue, and the Bonetta, 
Captain Becket, went on a short cruise to the harbor of St. Peter’s 
and places adjacent, and Captain Arno was put in command of one 
of Donahue’s prize sloops and sent with despatches to Chapeaurouge 

Captains Donahue and Becket were in search of French vessels 
said to be laid up in the vicinity of St. Peter’s. They found and cap¬ 
tured a sloop, a schooner, and at least one other vessel, probably 
a sloop, and returned to Canso on or before May 10. On that day 
Captain Donahue sighted a ship to the westward which was thought 
to be H.M.S. Bien Aime, Capt. Clark Gayton, which had sailed from 
Nantasket on May 3. 

The Resolution, Captain Donahue, joined the fleet off Louisbourg, 
and came into Chapeaurouge Bay on the 11th, and a schooner that 
had been in the expedition to the eastward returned to Chapeaurouge 
Bay. The Tartar, Captain Fones, which had returned to the fleet 
after her cruise with the Shirley in pursuit of the RenommGe, was 
sent to the eastward to summon to Chapeaurouge Bay the vessels 
that had not as yet returned from that expedition and also the 
Mermaid and the Molineux, that were cruising to the eastward. 
The Tartar cruised on this mission for five days, meeting the Defence 
on the 13th and presumably some of the other vessels, and returned 
to Chapeaurouge Bay, where she lay on the 16th. The aforesaid 
expedition reached St. Ann’s Bay on the 6th. The schooners (appar¬ 
ently there was more than one in the expedition) went in to the bay 
during the morning, and the Defence went in and landed men in the 
afternoon. The next day a landing party with the Eltham’s barge 
and yawl attacked and burnt St. Ann, a town of about 20 houses 
and between 20 and 40 shallops. They took one prisoner and much 
loot, consisting of 12 or 15 feather beds, 3 or 4 cases of bottles, 
chests with clothes, iron pots, brass kettles, candlesticks, frying pans, 
pewter plates, spoons, etc. 

On the 8th the Prince of Orange and the Defence weighed anchor 
at 4 P.M. and sailed northward. They captured a shallop, but 
turned it adrift in a snowstorm. On the 9th they reached Aganish 


15 


[Nigonish] Bay and burnt a town of 80 houses. They also destroyed 
the towns of Bradore and Bayonne, as well as St. Ann. At noon 
they started back for Louisbourg, but were forced to lay to until the 
12th on account of stormy weather. On the 13th the Defence met 
the Tartar about sunrise and reached Chapeaurouge Bay about 
11 o’clock. On the 8th the ship Massachusetts ran afoul of the Eltham 
in the fog at night, stove in the latter’s larboard quarter, and tore her 
mainsail. The Massachusetts carried away her bowsprit in the crash. 
The Eltham reached Louisbourg some time between May 13 and 16. 
Capt. Moses Bennett, in command of one of the despatch packets, 
sailed from Chapeaurouge Bay on the 12th and reached Boston on 
the 17th. Captain Donahue, in the Resolution , sailed with despatches 
and prisoners on the 12th for Boston, stopping on the way at Canso 
for his cable, anchor, and boat which he had left there. He reached 
Boston on the 18th. The Molineux spoke the ship Massachusetts on 
the 12th and the Bien Aime on the 13th. Captain Gayton, in the 
Bien Aime , who had left Nantasket May 3, was off Louisbourg on 
the 13th, having spoken the ship Massachusetts , the Molineux, and 
a schooner from Chapeaurouge Bay on that day. This same day a 
French snow of 150 tons, from Bordeaux, successfully ran the 
blockade and entered Louisbourg. Some packet or transport arrived 
on the 13th or 14th, for Giddings records receiving a letter from New 
England on May 14. On the 14th, also, some shallops were fitted 
with swivel guns, in order to assist landing parties. On May 13 
two fire ships, one an old ship of 150 tons and the other a schooner, 
were sent into Louisbourg in an unsuccessful attempt to burn the 
French snow, which was thought to have powder on board. Warren 
and Pepperell were constantly sending schooners with despatches 
back and forth between the fleet and the camp. 

Meanwhile Captain Rous, in the Shirley, sailed from Boston early 
in May (about May 3), convoying five transports, the Massachusetts 
ones commanded by Captains Bramham, Clark, Rackwood, and 
Jones, and the New Hampshire one by Captain Ward. On the 
voyage*, he fell in with the French frigate Renommee, which attacked 
one of the transports and forced her to strike her colors. The Re¬ 
nommee then left her to chase the Shirley, thus enabling the captured 
vessel to escape. Rous ordered two of the others to go inshore, 
where the Renommee could not follow them, and by this means they 
escaped. Three of them reached Canso by May 10. The other 
two made a harbor west of Canso, and finally arrived at Canso a 
day or so later. The Shirley outsailed the Renommee and reached 
Canso in safety. On the 15th the Shirley sailed from Canso, con¬ 
voying the aforesaid five transports and the Good Intent and the 
Philadelphia , which had reached Canso a few days earlier. This 
fleet reached Chapeaurouge Bay on the 16th.f 

A schooner left Chapeaurouge Bay on the 15th, touched at Canso 
on the 17th, and arrived at Boston on May 24. The schooner that 

♦Kimball, Correspondence of the Colonial Governors of Rhode Island, vol. 1, p. 341, footnote, 
confuses this voyage with that of the Tartar in April. 

fPepperell says that the transports arrived on the 17th. Rous, however, was certainly off 
Louisbourg on the 16th, with at least some of the transports. 


16 


had been sent to Newfoundland with despatches, returning, arrived 
at Chapeaurouge Bay on or before the 15th. 

On this day also four transports sailed from Canso for Boston. 
They were the brigantine Victory, Capt. William Adams, the 
brigantine St. Jean, Captain Richardson, the schooner St. Peter, 
Captain Davis, and the prize sloop taken by Donahue, which was 
commanded by Captain Arno. On the 15th two schooners commanded 
by Mr. Allen and Mr. Hammond were sent on a fishing expedition 
from Chapeaurouge Bay. They touched at Canso on the evening 
of the 16th and again on the evening of the 17th. They sailed in the 
morning, but were driven back by bad weather. On the 19th they 
sailed again for Chapeaurouge Bay, Mr. Hammond carried despatches 
from Cutter to Peppered, and reached Chapeaurouge Bay on the 
21st. The Victory, Captain Adams, reached Boston on May 22, as 
also a schooner taken by the Boston Packet. 

The brigantine St. Jean and Captain Arno reached Boston before 
May 23, as also another sloop and a schooner, both prizes of Captain 
Donahue. A schooner which left Chapeaurouge Bay on the 15th 
and Canso on the 17th arrived at Boston on the 24th. This was 
probably the schooner Charming Molly, Captain Byles, carrying 
wounded soldiers, which sailed from Canso on the 17th in company 
with the schooner Seafiower, Captain Wadlin, which carried French 
civilians from the Isle de Madame. On the 16th the Bonetta, Captain 
Becket, sailed from Canso for the Gut of Canso, in search of timber, 
and also for the Isle de Madame. 

On May 16 the Superb, Eltham, Launceston, Tartar, and Shirley 
were off Louisbourg, and a council of war was held on board the 
Superb, which was attended by Warren, Durell, Calmady, Tiddeman, 
Rous, and Fones. 

On May 17 Warren wrote to Pepperell: “Captain Gayton and all 
our cruizers except the Road Island ship are now in sight,” appar¬ 
ently ignoring the absence of the Prince of Orange. In direct contra¬ 
diction to this, Pepperell wrote on the 19th to Warren: “When 
Capt. Gayton arrives, pray the favour of you that I may know of 
it,” and again on the 19th: “I cant conceive where Gayton and 
Smythers are,” and on the 20th to Warren: “Capt. Gayton is not 
yet arrived.” Either Pepperell did not know that Gayton was seen 
by Warren on the 17th or else he was expected to go into Chapeau¬ 
rouge Bay and failed to do so. 

The apparent contradiction in the data in regard to the Prince 
of Orange, Captain Smithurst, can perhaps be explained by the fact 
that Pepperell and Warren issued orders to the captains of vessels 
without regard as to whether or not the vessels were present. On 
May 11 it was voted to send fourteen Massachusetts transports to 
Boston under convoy of Captain Smithurst. On the 12th Pepperell 
wrote to Warren: “I have this day sent the schooner Prince of 
Orange to Boston, ordering to wait on you for your packets.” The 
Prince of Orange was a snow, not a schooner. Warren on the 13th 
wrote: “Smythers was with the Eltham, and I believe will soon be in.” 
Smythers, alias Smithurst, was captain of the Prince of Orange and 
was with the Eltham on the expedition to St. Ann on the 7th and 


17 


8th and perhaps later. On the 13th Warren asked Pepperell: “Shall 
I send Smythers when he arrives to Boston, agreeable to Mr. Shirley's 
request to you?", and on the 19th Peppered, as stated above, wrote: 
“I cant conceive where Gayton and Smythers are." On the 21st 
Peppered wrote: “Some of them you may order on board Smithers 
which he may carry with him to Boston, as Gov. Shirley desires he 
may be sent to guard the coast of New England." Smithurst had 
not sailed by the 21st and was not with the fleet on the 24th. Pep¬ 
pered wrote to Shirley on June 2: “I have heard nothing of Smithurst 
since his being in bad weather on his passage from St. Ann's." 
Governor Shirley wrote on June 2: “I am in some pain for Smith¬ 
urst," and on July 19 he conceded the loss of the Prince of Orange, 
attributing it to a storm. A French privateer was captured on 
July 13 by the Boston Packet, and from this vessel it was learned 
that the Prince of Orange had been captured by the Renommee, which 
reached Canada (McLennan says the Baie des Castors in Acadia) 
some thirty-two days before, that is, about June 12. It must have 
been earlier than that date, however, for the Renommee crossed the 
Atlantic and arrived at Brest on June 19. The Prince of Orange was 
probably captured between the time when she parted from the 
Defence on May 12 and the time when she would naturally have 
reached the fleet off Louisbourg, that is, not later than May 16 or 17. 
Curiously enough, after capturing the snow Prince of Orange , the 
Renommee crossed the Atlantic, joined De Salvert's squadron, and 
sailed again for America, capturing on this voyage, late in July or 
early in August, another Prince of Orange , one of the so-called “mast- 
ships," from which the French fleet obtained its first news of the fall 
of Louisbourg. 

H.M.S. Trethodck (Trecothick) , a supply vessel for Commodore 
Warren's fleet, arrived at Chapeaurouge Bay on May 18. On this 
day the Tartar was ordered to cruise to the eastward of Louisbourg. 
A French brigantine appeared, and the Tartar immediately went in 
chase and soon captured her in the Bay of Scatarie. She was the 
Deux Amies , called also by various authorities the Deux Amie, Deux 
Amis, and perhaps also the Two Friends (cf. McLennan, Louisbourg, 
page 144, footnote), 80 tons, Capt. Dominick Chatson, bound from 
St. Jean de Luz, near Bayonne, France, for Louisbourg, with a 
cargo of wine, brandy, provisions, oil, nets, cordage, and salt. The 
Tartar took the Deux Amies into Chapeaurouge Bay on the 19th, 
being joined on the way by H.M.S. Launceston. From the Deux 
Amies it was learned that a French fleet of four men-of-war (one of 
72 guns, and three of 56 guns each) and three company ships of 30 
guns each might be daily expected. On May 18 Captain Fletcher in 
the Boston Packet landed a party about 10 miles from Louisbourg, 
on Chapeaurouge Bay, some distance from the camp. They were 
attacked by Indians and lost seven or eight men killed and three 
captured. The Molineux went into Chapeaurouge Bay for wood and 
water on the 19th. 

The French ship Vigilant, 64 guns, Capt. Alexandre Boisdescourt, 
Marquis de la Maisonfort, attacked H.M.S. Mermaid about 1 P.M. 
on May 19. The latter led the French ship toward the fleet off 


18 


Louisbourg. The Vigilant pursued the Mermaid until the fleet came 
in sight. Then she attempted to escape, instead of chase, and the 
Mermaid in turn chased her. The Shirley , Captain Rous, joined in 
the chase at 3 P.M. (at 6 P.M., according to the log of the Mermaid) 
and “plyed his Bow Chace very well” until 7 o’clock. The Superb, 
Launceston, Eltham, and the ship Massachusetts joined in the chase. 
The larger vessels easily outsailed the Massachusetts and the Shirley, 
and soon disappeared in the fog that had set in. The Vigilant, after 
being very badly battered by gunfire, surrendered to the Mermaid 
about 9 o’clock in the evening. Waldo wrote on May 21 that he 
thought he saw the large French ship following Commodore Warren 
into Chapeaurouge Bay on the evening past. Bradstreet states that 
the Vigilant was brought into Chapeaurouge Bay on the 21st. 
Captain Douglas of the Mermaid was given the command of the 
Vigilant, and Captain Montague was put in command of the Mermaid . 

The ship Massachusetts, Captain Tyng, brought a letter from 
Commodore Warren to General Pepperell at Chapeaurouge Bay on 
the 21st, and H.M.S. Bien Aime, Captain Gay ton, arrived. In the 
afternoon H.M.S. Launceston ran afoul of the Molineux in the fog 
and almost capsized her. The Launceston’s forechains were carried 
away. As is usual in war, sickness claimed many victims. Com¬ 
modore Warren states that he had to man the Shirley out of the 
transports and left only four men on each transport. He suggested 
that the prisoners be put on the Ccesar, Fame, Molineux, and the 
Prince of Orange. A schooner with despatches from Canso reached 
Chapeaurouge Bay. Captain Saunders, who apparently had charge 
of the vessels at Chapeaurouge Bay, wrote to General Pepperell 
that he had sent two schooners with wood and water out to the 
fleet, had watered the Fame, Molineux, and Tartar, and had sent 
Captain Daggett to the fleet with powder and shot. 

A large ship of 60 guns, supposed to be the Aurora Borealis but 
really H.M.S. Princess Mary, Captain Edwards, joined the fleet on 
the 22d, and Captain Smith of the packet service sailed from Cha¬ 
peaurouge Bay with despatches, touching at Canso on the 23d and 
arriving at Boston on May 30. Cleaves under date of May 22 wrote: 
“go tens [? Gaytons] men to[ok] a french shalloway from St. Johns 
[? Isle St. Jean] to Lovesburge [Louisbourg] laden with corn and rye.” 
On May 22 Captain Donnel’s schooner, that had been retaken by 
the Boston Packet, arrived at Boston. She must have sailed from 
Canso or Chapeaurouge Bay about the middle of the month. 

The ship Massachusetts was in Chapeaurouge Bay on the 23d, 
and on the 24th H.M.S. Hector joined the fleet and the Defence 
anchored in Chapeaurouge Bay. The Defence sailed out of the Bay 
and joined the fleet off Louisbourg on the 26th. 

About the middle of May Captain Newmarch, in the schooner 
Fishhawk, was sent with despatches to Annapolis Royal. On the 
19th he was attacked by Indians, in eleven canoes, at Annapolis 
Harbor, between the Basin and the fort, and, after the Indians had 
fired about 200 shots, he was forced to return. He arrived at Canso 
on the 26th, and reported that a 60-gun French ship had recently 
been at Liscomb’s Harbor. Captain Newmarch continued on to 


19 


Chapeaurouge Bay, where he arrived on the 31st. On May 30 the 
Vigilant was brought into Chapeaurouge Bay to be refitted. Captain 
Becket, in the Bonetta , went from Canso to the Isle de Madame, and 
returned with news that 1000 French and Indians would soon go 
to Cape Breton via the Gut of Canso. On this cruise Captain 
Becket landed at the Isle de la Madelaine and burned eleven houses 
there. Becket planned to go to “Santa Spirit” [St. Esprit] to burn 
that place, but Cutter, the commandant at Canso, would not spare 
him so long from guarding that port. 

At a council of war held June 1 it was decided to man the Vigilant 
out of the transports and land forces, leaving only two men on each 
transport. Commodore Warren sent despatches to General Pepperell 
by Mr. Loring and by Captain Newmarch in the Fishhawk. The 
Susurnam, a brigantine from Nantes, laden with wine and brandy,, 
was captured by the Mermaid on June 1 or 2, Wolcott and Bradstreet 
saying that she was taken on the 1st, while the logs of the Mermaid 
and the Eltham and also Warren, Pepperell, and Bidwell give the 
date as the 2d. According to the Launceston’s log, she was brought 
to the fleet on the 3d. The Molineux was sent in chase to the east¬ 
ward on the 2d. An anonymous diarist says that a ship and a brig 
were taken on June 1, and Bradstreet says a ship and a snow, evi¬ 
dently meaning a brig. The rumor of the capture of two vessels 
was apparently current in camp. Wolcott describes the vessel as 
a brig of 15 tons, probably an error for 150 tons or 15 guns. Captain 
Rous in the Shirley , together with two schooners, was ordered to 
Annapolis with despatches on June 1, and a vessel with despatches 
for Boston was to be convoyed by the Shirley as far as Cape Sable. 
In case Annapolis was found to be in danger, one schooner was to 
be sent to Boston and the other to Louisbourg. 

On June 2 the Defence anchored off the camp. Later in the day 
(or, according to Wolcott, Bradstreet, and an anonymous diarist, 
on the 3d) Captain Donahue, in the Resolution , arrived from Boston 
in eight days, with a large mortar, shells, and powder. Captain Bush 
was sent to the Lighthouse Battery with carriages for the cannon, 
and Commodore Warren sent Mr. Loring in a schooner to assist 
Bush with the landing. The Shirley sailed on the 2d, in company 
with two schooners, for Annapolis. Captain Giddings, in a schooner, 
sailed from Chapeaurouge Bay on June 3 (June 4 according to 
Pepperelks diary, but June 3 according to a letter of Pepperelks 
written on the 5th and also a subsequent letter) with despatches, and 
arrived at Boston on June 15 after “a 10 days voyage.” It is possible 
that Giddings joined the Shirley and was convoyed as far as Cape 
Sable, as ordered. 

On June 3 Commodore Warren ordered the Boston Packet , Captain 
Fletcher, into the Bay as an additional guard to help Captain 
Saunders in case of trouble with the prisoners. Captain Griffith in 
the Ccesar captured a large sloop from Canada, laden with flour and 
other provisions, a few miles east of the lighthouse. She ran ashore 
while trying to escape. This vessel brought the news that 1000 
reenforcements were coming from the siege of Annapolis to the 


20 


relief of Louisbourg. The Launceston's log, under the date of June 4, 
says that she was “joined by privateer’s sloop and prize.” 

At a council of war held on June 3 it was voted to man the Vigilant 
out of the Fame , Ccesar, and Molineux, leaving forty men on each, 
and then to send these three vessels to New England with prisoners. 
It was also voted to retain the Tartar in His Majesty’s service until 
further orders. Cleaves says that Colonel Evelith’s schooner came 
in from Annapolis on the 3d and that the prize ship [? the Vigilant ] 
sailed out of the Bay. 

Bidwell records that a “frigas” [frigate], with nineteen men, was taken 
at night on June 3 near Scatarie. This perhaps refers to the Susurnam. 

Captain Becket, in the Bonetta, with only thirty-one men, sailed 
from Canso on May 28 and cruised at sea, returning on June 1. 
Captain Bennett sailed from Boston about May 27 and reached 
Canso, after a voyage of six days, on the afternoon of June 2 and 
Chapeaurouge Bay on the 4th. Evidently the schooner Montague 
and another schooner belonging at Annapolis had been captured by 
the French, for Governor Shirley on June 3 wrote that he hoped to 
retake them. He also wrote: “The Canso soldiers I got sent away 
in an armed billander* sufficient to clear the Gut of the enemy.” 
Engineer John H. Bastide, in the “Ordnance Packet” Amplus, 
Captain Donnel, left Annapolis on May 27 and reached Canso on 
June 4. Mr. Bastide then sent a despatch to Commodore Warren by 
the Bonetta , Captain Becket’s “little sloop,” which reached Cha- 
peaurouge Bay on the 5th. Mr. Bastide in the Amplus sailed from 
Canso on the 5th and reached Chapeaurouge Bay on June 6. 

Bradstreet says that two vessels were captured on June 4, evidently 
referring to the “Carolina rice ship”f and the “Canada sloop,” the 
latter also being mentioned by him as taken on the 3d. Pepperell 
also refers to her on both the 3d and 4th. She was captured on the 
3d at night, and was apparently brought into Chapeaurouge Bay on 
the 4th; hence the repeated entries. Pepperell wrote that, if Captain 
Bush and Captain Loring in a schooner had not been at the entrance 
of the harbor, the sloop would probably have got in. The so-called 
“Carolina rice ship” was chased by the Molineux and the Princess 
Mary on June 4 and was captured by the latter. She was a brigantine 
of 200 tons and 12 guns, and had been recently captured by the French 
ship Renommte. On this day also the ship Massachusetts and the 
Fame sailed to the relief of Annapolis. 

On June 5 the Defence weighed anchor and cruised to the west of 
the lighthouse, the Abigail , Captain Femald, was ordered to replace 
Captain Bush’s vessel in guarding the mouth of the harbor, and the 
Bonetta, Captain Becket, arrived from Canso with news that the 
French had raised the siege of Annapolis and were sending reen¬ 
forcements to Louisbourg. The Molineux was ordered to Chapeau- 

*A bilander is a two-masted vessel, like a brig, but she has her mainsail bent to the whole length 
of a yard hanging fore and aft and inclined to the horizon at an angle of 45 degrees, the foremost 
lower corner being secured to a ringbolt in the deck. She carries a square maintopsail and top¬ 
gallant sail. 

fOne diarist says a brig, and Pomeroy says that the vessel was taken on the 5th and was said 
to be a 34-gun ship. Cleaves says that a ship and a snow were taken on the 4th and two rice ships 
on the 5th. Evidently the rumors in camp exaggerated the number of prizes taken. 


21 


rouge Bay to take on board 150 French prisoners for Boston. The 
Hopestill sailed from Chapeaurouge Bay on June 5 at 7 o’clock in 
the evening, reached Casco Bay on June 18, and sailed on the 20th 
for Boston, where she arrived at 1.12 at night on the 21st. On 
June 6 Captain Bush came on shore at Chapeaurouge Bay. 

The Tartar , Captain Fones, sailed on June 6 for Canso, where she 
arrived on the 7th, and sailed immediately to join the Resolution 
and the Bonetta , which had already sailed for the Gut of Canso on 
the evening of the 6th. 

H.M.S. Chester , 50 guns, joined the fleet on June 9, and Warren 
sent word of the fact to Pepperell. Pepperell, also, sent a despatch 
to Warren by a shallop. 

The fourteen transports which were to be convoyed to Boston by 
the Prince of Orange , according to the order of May 11, sailed June 10 
under the convoy of the Bien Aime, Captain Gay ton, as the Prince 
of Orange was still missing. There were twenty-six vessels in this 
convoy, including the Molineux, Caesar , and four New Hampshire 
transports. A schooner was despatched from Chapeaurouge Bay for 
Canso with messages on this day. 

About June 4 Captain Donahue, in the Resolution , sailed from 
Chapeaurouge Bay for Canso and the Gut. Captain Bush was 
ordered to Boston with prisoners on June 6, but these orders were 
probably countermanded, as he apparently did not make this voyage. 
The Tartar was off Louisbourg on June 6 and was ordered to take 
Bush’s place at the mouth of the harbor. 

Warren wrote on this date, June 6, that he had ordered the Defence 
to the Gut of Canso; but this was either a slip of the pen or else 
the order was changed, for the Tartar was sent. Commodore Warren 
sent a schooner to Annapolis on the 7th to recall the Massachusetts 
and Fame and to order the Shirley to Boston. 

Six transports were ordered out to the fleet on June 11, and on the 
13th all the transports in Chapeaurouge Bay, fifty-four in number, 
sailed out to the fleet to strip the vessels for action. 

Meanwhile, on June 12, H.M.S. Sunderland , 60 guns, H.M.S. 
Canterbury, 60 guns, H.M.S. Lark , 40 guns, a prize of 20 guns, and 
the ordnance storeship for Annapolis, the Blacket and Fenwick , 
Captain Kitchenman, arrived; two wood sloops were sent out to 
the fleet; and the Defence and Boston Packet sent a plundering expe¬ 
dition on shore near “Laten.” The land forces at the Royal Battery 
seized seventeen shallops, thirty whaleboats, and a schooner, and 
Mr. Shipman on June 12 ran the schooner out of the harbor to the 
fleet. A shallop had been kept plying between the fleet and Grand 
Battery with messages. 

The Resolution, Captain Donahue, reached Canso on June 5, with 
General Pepperell’s orders of the 3d; the Tartar, as has been noted, 
arrived on the 7th; Captain Hodgkins arrived with supplies from 
Chapeaurouge Bay on the 11th, and sailed again for Chapeaurouge 
Bay, in company with “the small sloop,” on or before June 14. 
Captain Bramham’s sloop was at Canso on June 14, and sailed on 
the 15th for Chapeaurouge Bay. On that day the schooner Sally, 


22 


Captain Smith, arrived at Canso from Boston in ten days, and reached 
Chapeaurouge Bay on the 18th. 

Louisbourg capitulated on June 16, 1745, and the fleet of warships 
and transports sailed into the harbor on the 17th. On the 18th the 
French ship St. Francis Xavier , 300 tons, 12 guns, from Bordeaux, 
laden with wine and brandy, appeared off the lighthouse and was 
captured by H.M.S. Chester. Governor Wolcott credits the capture 
to the Connecticut sloop Defence, Captain Prentice, which probably 
assisted the Chester. The schooner Sally , Captain Smith, one of the 
despatch packets, arrived from Boston and Canso. 

At Boston Captain Giddings, in a schooner, arrived on the 15th, 
the Molineux, Captain Snelling, with 143 prisoners on the 17th, 
and on the 19th the Ccesar, Captain Griffith, a prize ship of 16 guns, 
and (in the evening) the Bien Aime, Captain Gayton. Between 
June 20 and 27 several transports with troops sailed from Boston 
for Cape Breton Island. The Boston News-Letter states that Captain 
Snelling, in the ship Ccesar, sailed June 25. This error has been fol¬ 
lowed by Winsor and Preble. It was really the Molineux , Captain 
Snelling, carrying 110 soldiers, that sailed from Nantasket early in 
the morning of the 25th, and not the snow Ccesar , which was a vessel 
of 14 guns and was commanded by John (not George) Griffith. 
(Cf. Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society, vol. 44, 
page 76.) She had under convoy a schooner and a sloop, but lost 
sight of them in a thunderstorm on June 29. 

Captain Bennett sailed from Louisbourg on the 20th and reached 
Boston July 2, with the first news of the capture of Louisbourg. 
Early in the morning of the next day, July 3, which was Commence¬ 
ment Day, Governor Shirley ordered all the bells in Boston to be 
rung and guns to be fired to announce and celebrate the victory. 

Captain Bush sailed from Louisbourg for England on the 22d, 
with Captain Montague and a joint letter from Warren and Pep- 
perell to the Duke of Newcastle. The vessel was reported by a 
French prize to have been captured and taken into Saint-Malo, yet 
Captain Montague, with the news of the surrender of Louisbourg, 
arrived in England on July 20. At 4 o’clock in the afternoon of 
Tuesday, July 23, the Tower and park guns in London were fired in 
honor of the capture of Cape Breton, and in the evening London was 
illuminated, amidst the blaze of many bonfires. 

The Shirley, Captain Rous, arrived off Louisbourg from Annapolis, 
with artillery, on the 24th, but was prevented by a heavy fog from 
entering the harbor until the 25th.* She saluted the fleet with 17 
guns. Coit’s, Mumford’s, and Robbins’s vessels were taken into the 
King’s pay on the 24th. This was doubtless a result of the action of 
the council of war, which on June 22 advised that eight vessels be 
used as transports to carry the prisoners to France, viz., two brig¬ 
antines and a schooner belonging to Connecticut (probably the 
vessels commanded by Coit, Mumford, and Robbins), two sloops 
belonging to Boston, commanded by Bramham and Clark, a schooner 
(? the St. Peter) of York, commanded by Adams, a sloop of Ports- 

♦Accounts vary, giving Rous’s arrival on the 24th, the 25th, and the 26th. Cleaves gives Rous’s 
arrival from Annapolis both on June 26 and July 2. 


23 


mouth (the Abigail), “Jno. Furnell, Master/’ and two vessels com¬ 
manded by Robert White and Sami. Barnes. As the only schooner 
in the Connecticut contingent of Apr. 14 was the Charming Molly , 
Captain Byles, that had sailed for New England in May, it would 
seem probable that this schooner and one or both of the brigantines 
had come later with supplies or reenforcements. The embarkation 
of the French prisoners and refugees on the transports and warships 
for their journey to France began on June 24. 

The Tartar joined the Resolution and the Bonetta in the Gut of 
Canso about June 8. The fleet of three vessels, under the command 
of Fones, cruised for a week in search of the enemy reenforcements, 
but without success. On the 15th, near Tackquamnash in Askma- 
couse Harbor, Famme Goose Bay, at six in the morning, smoke was 
sighted to leeward. The Tartar and Bonetta went in pursuit, believ¬ 
ing it to be from the fires of the French and Indian troops. Soon 
after they had disappeared from sight, two sloops, two schooners, a 
shallopway, and about fifty Indian canoes appeared. The wind hav¬ 
ing dropped, the Resolution was left helplessly becalmed, and was 
easily surrounded and attacked by the lighter craft. Captain Dona¬ 
hue and his vessel were dangerously near capture, when a freshening 
breeze brought back the Tartar and the Bonetta. When these vessels 
brought their guns to bear on the French and Indians, many were 
killed. The enemy then retreated into shoal water, the Resolution 
pursuing them at pistol-shot range until she ran aground, but later 
she was floated. The French and Indians retreated up the narrow 
creeks and sought refuge in the woods. They were under the com¬ 
mand of M. Marin, a Canadian officer, and were about 1200 in 
number, being the reenforcements sent from the siege of Annapolis 
Royal to the relief of Louisbourg. This defeat which they suffered 
at Famme Goose Bay prevented their crossing to Cape Breton 
Island and reaching Louisbourg. Two days after this repulse the 
forces under Pepperell entered the city of Louisbourg. 

The fleet under Fones cruised for another week in order to prevent 
a second attempt of the reenforcements to cross to Cape Breton 
Island, and then, on the 22d, Captain Fones despatched the Bonetta, 
Captain Becket, to Canso with news of the defeat of Marin. The 
Bonetta arrived at Canso June 23. 

Returning from Canso, the Bonetta rejoined Fones’s fleet and cruised 
with them until the 26th, when Fones sent additional despatches to 
Commodore Warren. The Bonetta carried these, touching at Canso 
on the 27th, speaking the Defence off St. Esprit on the 29th, and 
reaching Chapeaurouge Bay the same day. Meanwhile the Tartar 
and the Resolution continued to guard the Gut of Canso. On Satur¬ 
day, June 29, they sighted four Indians at a place called Fustic, 
about a league west of the Gut. Captain Donahue and eleven of 
his men went ashore in his launch to investigate, and were suddenly 
.surrounded and cut off by about 300 Indians. The Tartar, being 
within musket shot of the shore, tried to cover the landing party 
with gunfire, but Captain Donahue and five of his men were killed, 
the othqr six being captured. The Indians are reported to have 
cut open Donahue’s chest, to have sucked his blood, and then to have , 


24 


eaten Donahue and the other five slain. Captain Fones in the 
Tartar , with Captain Donahue’s Resolution, reached Canso July 7 
with the sad news of Donahue’s death, and on the 8th the Resolution 
sailed into Louisbourg Harbor with her colors hoisted at half-mast. 
Capt. David Donahue was the only naval commander to lose his 
life in the expedition of 1745 against Louisbourg.* Capt. Joseph 
Richardson was appointed captain of the Resolution. 

The Massachusetts, Captain Tyng, returning from Annapolis, 
passed Canso on June 26 without stopping, apparently not seeing 
the signals of Captain Cutter, the commandant there, and therefore 
must have reached Louisbourg about the 27th. The Defence sailed 
from Louisbourg on June 28, spoke the Bonetta, Captain Becket, 
about 8 o’clock on the 29th off St. Esprit, and anchored at Canso 
on June 30. 

H.M.S. Hector, Captain Cornwall, sailed from Louisbourg June 30 
with despatches, and arrived at Boston July 9, “in eight days.” 

The Defence sailed from Canso at 7 A.M. on July 1 and anchored 
in Louisbourg Harbor at 11 A.M. on July 3. The Diamond, Capt. 
Ephraim Doane, sailed from Louisbourg with sick soldiers on July 2 
and reached Canso at 3 P.M. on July 3, sailing again from Canso 
July 5 for New London. 

Captain Giddings, who sailed from Boston June 22 with despatches 
and several vessels and one company of Colonel Choate’s regiment, 
arrived at Chapeaurouge Bay July 2 and anchored at Louisbourg 
July 3. Captain Edman also arrived at Louisbourg on the 3d, with 
a company of Worcester County men. 

At least one of the transports that sailed from Boston with part 
of Colonel Choate’s regiment, a day or so after Captain Giddings 
sailed, arrived at Canso July 3. 

On July 3 there arrived at Louisbourg the Fame from Annapolis, 
a schooner, probably Captain Giddings’s, from Boston, the Defence 
from Canso, and a 20-gun man-of-war, with 200 soldiers, from 
Newfoundland. H.M.S. Launceston and several transports sailed for 
France with about 1200 refugees, H.M.S. Lark for Newfoundland, 
and H.M.S. Superb, Captain Tiddeman, for Boston. Some of the 
transports may have sailed for New England on July 3. 

Captain Robbins, Captain Cerl [? Coit], Captain Mumford, and 
several sloop transports, six vessels in all, sailed for France July 4, 
and a schooner from New England, with troops (Cleves says two 
transports), arrived. 

On July 5 Captain Saunders with despatches, H.M.S. Eltham, a 
schooner (apparently the Hopestill ), and the “Annapolis store ship” 
Blacket and Fenwick, Captain Kitcherman [Kitchenman] sailed for 
Boston. Captain Saunders arrived on the 14th; the Eltham, the 
storeship, and a prize sloop with 204 prisoners arrived on the 17th. 

•David Donahue was mate on the Mary galley, of London, which was wrecked, 4 Sept. 
1742, in the River Gambia, on the western coast of Africa. The ship was plundered and de¬ 
stroyed by the natives, and her cargo of slaves escaped and barbarously murdered all of the orew 
except the captain and Donahue. These two hid for twenty-seven days in the remains of the 
cabin, and finally made their escape and reached Senegal. But Donahue escaped death at the 
hands of the African savages only to be barbarously killed three years later by the Indians in 
Nova Scotia. 


25 

This last-mentioned may have been one of the vessels that sailed for 
Canso on the 5th. 

The Defence and “two other sloops” sailed from Louisbourg 
July 5 for Canso, where the Defence arrived on the 6th. 

On July 12, in lattitude 42° 16', between Cape Sable and the 
Isle of Shoals, the Diamond spoke Captain Saunders in an armed 
vessel that had sailed from Louisbourg after the Diamond sailed. 

Commodore Warren issued orders dated July 5 to Captain Fones 
and Captain Donahue. The latter, however, had been killed, and 
Captain Fones was still in the Gut of Canso or Bay of Vert. Captain 
Fones may have received these orders when the Tartar reached 
Canso on the 7th, or he may have joined Commodore Warren's 
squadron on the 8th and then received them. In either case he seems 
to have returned immediately to the Bay of Vert, following these 
instructions, and to have gone to Isle de St. Jean, to seize that island 
and bring away prisoners or hostages. They landed at St. Peter’s, 
on Isle de St. Jean, and, according to Pollard, “devastated the 
establishment of le sieur Roma, and another [estate belonging] 
to la Joie, then under the command of an Ensign of foot, M. Dupont 
Duvivier, and 15 men. Duvivier escaped to the woods and when a 
party of English advanced into the forest, they were set on by 
Duvivier, reinforced by a number of Indians and 28 men were killed.”* 

On July 5, in the morning, a schooner arrived at Louisbourg from 
Boston via Canso, having on board Colonel Choate and two com¬ 
panies of soldiers. The Shirley , Captain Rous, sailed July 6, amid the 
salutes of the men-of-war, with despatches for England, where she 
arrived after a voyage of three weeks. The Molineux , Captain Snel- 
ling, with a sloop and schooner, arrived at Louisbourg from Boston 
with recruits on the 6th. 

On the 4th the Molineux spoke a schooner that had sailed on the 
23d from Boston for Louisbourg. A Rhode Island schooner com¬ 
manded by James Jordon arrived at Canso in the afternoon of July 8.f 
On the 9th seven transports sailed from Louisbourg for Boston with 
prisoners, and a sloop commanded by Trefethen sailed for Ports¬ 
mouth. Another diarist says that eight schooners sailed for New 
England with prisoners on the 9th. A schooner sailed for France 
on the 10th. 

The Defence sailed from Canso for St. Peter’s on July 11, spoke 
Captain Hammond, who was bound for Louisbourg, on the 13th, 
and returned to Canso on the 15th. A schooner, Captain Jordon, 
from Canso, three weeks out from Rhode Island, arrived at Louis¬ 
bourg July 11, and five or six schooners with prisoners and soldiers, 
together with the Fame , Captain Thompson, with sick soldiers, 
sailed at 10 A.M. for Boston. Captain Mitchell, in command of a 
sloop transport, Donahue’s Resolution , Captain Richardson, and two 
schooners (one diarist says two sloops and two schooners) were in 
the fleet of five or six vessels that sailed for New England on the 12th. 

The Boston Packet, Captain Fletcher, on July 13 took a French 

♦James B. Pollard’s Historical Sketch of the Eastern Regions of New France, p. 17. Cf. also 
Thomas C. Haliburton’ Nova Scotia, p. 123, and McLennan’s Louisbourg, p. 166. 
fSheffield, p. 18, says that Jordon arrived at Louisbourg July 25. 


26 


privateer schooner, 4 guns (4 cannon and 12 swivel guns), from 
Canada, laden with provisions, and from this vessel it was learned 
that the Prince of Orange had been captured by the Renommee several 
weeks before. 

Several wood sloops returned from St. Ann to Louisbourg on 
July 14; a transport sailed at 6 A.M. from Louisbourg, reached 
Canso on the 15th, passed Cape Negro on the 23d, and reached 
Boston on the 29th; and the Amplus sailed from Louisbourg about 
7 A.M., spoke a brigantine from Massachusetts on the 15th, and at 
four in the afternoon of the 16th put into Canso, where they found 
strawberries ripe. The Amplus sailed from Canso at dawn the next 
day, sighted several vessels from Boston, passed Cape Sable on the 
26th, sighted Cape Ann on the 28th, reached Nantasket on the 29th, 
and anchored at Boston before sunset. 

Late in June or early in July Captain Wickham arrived at Boston 
from Newport with 74 Rhode Island sailors for the Vigilant, 61 of 
whom were embarked before July 3 on the snow Ccesar. The Coesar 
was delayed in Boston until July 9, when she was ordered to sail 
forthwith, and she arrived at Louisbourg July 16, having convoyed 
six or seven vessels with troops from “the neighboring governments,” 
that is, Rhode Island and Connecticut. These vessels doubtless 
included the two Rhode Island transports (Sheffield mentions two brig¬ 
antines, the Success and the Susan), the brigantine Success (which 
was hired by the Colony before June 18, 1745, from William Ellery 
and Philip Tillinghast, both of Newport), and the schooner Beaver, 
Captain Cahoone, which sailed from Newport July 2, with three 
companies of Rhode Island soldiers. 

Two sloops, under Captain Chapman and Captain Fitch, with 
troops from Connecticut, arrived at Louisbourg on July 17, and 
apparently also Capt. John Wise arrived from Portsmouth, whither 
he sailed back, arriving there before July 25. The Molineux, Captain 
Snelling, sailed at 10 A.M. for Boston with 150 prisoners, passed 
White Head on the 18th, at midnight on the 19th, in a fog, ran 
afoul of a sloop bound from Boston to Newfoundland, passed Cape 
Negro on the 24th and spoke a sloop thirteen days out from Louis¬ 
bourg, and on the 28th, at 2 A.M., anchored in Boston Harbor. 

Some vessels going east passed Canso on July 17, and two more 
on July 18. Captain Adams sailed from Boston with letters on 
July 17, and Captain Stephenson on or soon after that date, both for 
Louisbourg. 

Meanwhile the sloop Massachusetts, Captain Saunders, had arrived 
at Boston on July 14, and had been ordered on July 16 to go to the 
fort on the St. George’s River. She immediately sailed on this 
mission, and, returning, reached Boston before Aug. 19. 

Captain Daniel and others from Louisbourg, in a sloop for New 
England, arrived at Canso July 16, and at night another sloop for 
the same destination arrived there. They both sailed on the 17th. 

On July 18 the ship Massachusetts sailed for Boston, some vessels 
sailed for France, and a sloop arrived. A ship sailed for France on 
July 19. The ship Massachusetts reached Boston before Aug. 1. 

The Defence sailed from Canso at sunrise on July 20, and reached 


27 


Louisbourg a little before sunset. A snow sailed for France, and a 
ship arrived from Boston, with women as well as men. 

Captain Bennett, Captain Elwell, and other transports arrived 
from Boston July 22, and a large French vessel was sighted off the 
harbor. 

At 9 A.M. on the 23d the Defence , Princess Mary , and Canterbury 
went in pursuit of the French ship and took her in the afternoon.* 
She proved to be the Charmante , an East Indiaman of 28 guns, from 
Bengal. With the first broadside she struck, then hoisted her colors 
again, tried to escape, and struck again as the English vessels closed 
in on her. She was said to be worth £200,000. 

The Boston Packet and several wood sloops came into Louisbourg 
July 23, and on the next day the Defence , Princess Mary , Canterbury , 
and Charmante sailed into Louisbourg Harbor. One diarist says that 
new recruits arrived from New England on the 24th. Captain Wise 
sailed from New Hampshire on or after July 9 with letters, and 
reached Louisbourg on or before July 25. 

On July 25 a large Rhode Island schooner, commanded by Captain 
Burton or Barton, arrived at Louisbourg. In the afternoon the 
French Malouin shipf sailed for France with refugees, and was 
convoyed off the coast to a distance of 60 leagues by the Tartar , 
Captain Fones, in order that she might not speak to any of the 
expected Indiamen. Captain Lovett’s vessel went to St. Peter’s to 
get wood. 

The Ccesar was in Louisbourg Harbor on July 20, and was ordered 
to carry French prisoners to Rhode Island. She was still at Louis¬ 
bourg on the 24th, but must have sailed soon afterwards. She arrived 
at Newport Aug. 11, 1745, and was thereupon discharged from 
service. The Fame arrived at Boston July 28, was still there on 
July 31, and was then ordered to Newport. She was ordered to dis¬ 
charge Thomas Russell, John Vickary, Roger Vickary, and Thomas 
Armstrong, all of Essex, Mass., before leaving Boston. She arrived 
at Newport Aug. 7 and was thereupon discharged from service. 

Captain Branscome sailed from New Hampshire for Louisbourg, 
with letters, on or after July 20. 

Several transports and traders, including at least a sloop and a 
schooner from Boston, arrived at Louisbourg on the 25th or 26th. 
Some sloops went to St. Peter’s and Chapeaurouge Bay to get wood. 
Captain Hodge and some others sailed on the 26th for New England, 
Hodge arriving at Boston Aug. 6. 

The Defence sailed from Louisbourg July 27 and reached Canso 
on the 28th. Ten wood sloops could be seen off Louisbourg bound 
for St. Peter’s. In the afternoon two men-of-war brought in a prize 
topsail sloop, which was a tender from the Bay of St. Lawrence. 
According to Craft, twenty-two prize vessels were sold at public 
auction (vendue) on the 27th. 

After the Tartar , Captain Fones, had left the French Malouin ship 
some 60 leagues south-southeast of Louisbourg, she returned. On 

♦Curwen states this in a letter dated July 25, and he adds that on the next day Colonel Gorham 
was to go in a sloop to Canada, with about 30 French prisoners. 

tA ship hailing from or sailing from the port of Saint-Malo, on the English Channel, in the old 
French province of Brittany. 


28 


her way back Captain Fones spied a ship, whereupon he hoisted 
French colors and decoyed her towards the harbor of Louisbourg, in 
order that she might be captured. The two vessels were sighted off 
Scatarie on July 28. The Chester and the Mermaid went in chase 
and soon captured the French vessel, which proved to be the Heron, 
24 guns, an East Indiaman from Bengal. The Tartar came into 
Louisbourg Harbor in the morning of July 29, and the Chester, 
Mermaid, and Heron arrived in the afternoon.* They fired a salute 
of fifteen guns, which was returned by Commodore Warren. 

According to the Briefs, the Tartar must have sailed for the Bay 
of Vert on a cruise on or shortly after July 29, but she seems to have 
been back again at Louisbourg on Aug. 7. 

On July 29 a sloop from Boston arrived with livestock and lime, 
and apparently also a vessel from Salem. Captain Young and Captain 
Smith arrived from Boston at night with 230 men. Captain Brans- 
come from Portsmouth, with a brigantine and schooner and three 
companies of New Hampshire troops, arrived July 30. 

On July 31 the Boston Packet and the Defence were ordered to 
cruise off Louisbourg in the direction of Scatarie. The Defence, 
however, did not return from Canso until Aug. 6. 

On Aug. 1 Captain Talcott sailed from Louisbourg for New 
London and Parsons sailed for New England. The Boston Packet, 
Captain Fletcher, was cruising to the eastward of Louisbourg, and 
on the evening of Aug. 1 she captured a barge which belonged to the 
Heron and which had gone in to Scatarie to get a pilot. The French¬ 
men thought the Boston Packet was a French brigantine, as she was 
flying French colors; and therefore they went out to warn her not to 
go into Louisbourg and were taken prisoners by Captain Fletcher. 
The next morning the Boston Packet sighted a large French ship, 
which the officer from the Heron thought was the Triton, of 40 guns. 
The Boston Packet fired three signal guns to warn the ships in the 
harbor that she had seen a sail. She also sent the captured barge 
into the harbor with the news. Then, hoisting French colors, she 
tacked back and forth, trying to decoy the French ship into the 
harbor. Soon the Chester and the Sunderland, both under French 
colors, were towed out of the harbor and made sail. When they 
reached the Boston Packet , all three bore down on the French ship, 
lowered their French colors, and raised English ones. Thereupon 
the Chester fired a single gun, and the French ship, the Notre Dame 
de la Deliverance, 22 guns, Pierre Litan, captain, struck. She was 
from the South Sea, with over £300,000 sterling, in gold and silver, 
from Peru and a cargo of cocoa, Peruvian wool, and Jesuits’ bark. 
She had sailed from Cadiz on this cruise over three years before. 
It is not surprising that a great amount of litigation followed the 
taking of so valuable a prize. The prize case of Notre Dame de la 
Deliverance was for many years in the courts, and much information 
in regard to the Colonial cruisers is found in the evidence there 
presented. 

*One diarist states that this rich prize was brought in on the 28th, and that it had been taken a 
day or two ago. He also wrote similarly on Aug. 2 that that rich prize had been taken some days 
ago. 


29 


In the afternoon (Aug. 2) the warships and their prize came into 
Louisbourg Harbor. Captain Ward arrived from Kittery, Captain 
Powell from Casco, and some sloops with wood from St. Peter’s. 
Captain Ward reported that he had seen five large ships and some 
sloops off Cape Sable. These were thought to be a French fleet. 

A ship arrived from London on Aug. 3, a schooner from New York 
on the 4th, and the Defence, which sailed from Canso on the 5th 
at 6 A.M., arrived at Louisbourg on the 6th. On Aug. 7 the Tartar 
was sent on a cruise along the coast from Louisbourg to Canso, in 
order to meet and escort the Hector , in which Governor Shirley was 
expected, in case that vessel should hesitate to venture inshore in 
the fog. If the Tartar should not meet the Hector before she reached 
Canso, she was to return immediately to Louisbourg with a report 
on the conditions at Canso. She followed these instructions, reached 
Canso long before Shirley did, and returned to Louisbourg, where 
she arrived Aug. 15. 

Capt. Zebulon Elwell, Captain Bennett, Captain Ryon, and others 
sailed for Boston Aug. 8. Bennett arrived at Boston Aug. 13, in 
five days — a fast trip. Captain Sherburn’s schooner was wrecked 
on the rocks on Island Battery, while going after wood on the 9th. 
Several sloops returned from St. Peter’s with wood, and a schooner, 
perhaps the Beaver , Captain Cahoone, arrived from Newport, R. I. 
Craft says that on Aug. 10 thirty-seven vessels belonging to the 
army were sold at public auction for £1419. Capt. Aaron Bull, in a 
sloop, arrived Aug. 10, as well as a vessel from Charlestown and one 
from New York. Captain Branscome sailed for New England Aug. 13. 

The Tartar, Captain Fones, arrived at Louisbourg on the 15th 
from Canso, and on the same day a deputation, consisting of two 
priests and five agents, came from Isle de St. Jean. They may have 
come on the Tartar. A number of transports sailed for Shedbuckda 
for wood, and several traders came in. 

H.M.S. Superb and H.M.S. Hector sailed from Boston Aug. 3 and 
reached Louisbourg at sunset on Aug. 16, bringing Governor Shirley, 
Mrs. Shirley, Mrs. Warren, and others. The next day, when Gov¬ 
ernor Shirley went on shore, the Hector fired seventeen guns, the 
Canterbury seventeen guns, and the city nineteen guns. Several 
vessels arrived from Boston on the 17th, and on the 18th the Massa¬ 
chusetts frigate, Captain Tyng, arrived, with several members of 
the Governor’s Council and two companies of men. 

About Aug. 20 a packet arrived from the West, that is, New 
England. A supply vessel from Massachusetts and several traders 
arrived on the 21st. 

On Aug. 20 the Tartar was ordered to go to Newfoundland with 
despatches, and to take with her, under convoy, the schooner Eliza¬ 
beth, with troops and stores. The Tartar’s crew had been depleted by 
sickness, so that she had to recruit hands from the land forces. She 
sailed Aug. 23, successfully carried out this mission, and, returning, 
arrived at Louisbourg Sept. 9. 

Soon after Aug. 23 the Beaver, Captain Cahoone, a Rhode Island 
vessel, must have sailed from Louisbourg for Newport. 

The Boston Packet came into Louisbourg Harbor on the 26th. 


30 


"News reached Louisbourg that a French privateer sloop had taken 
some English traders going to St. Ann, but had given back the 
vessels after taking off the cargoes. The Boston Packet and the 
Bonetta were sent in chase on the 27th, but, not sighting the privateer, 
returned. The Hector sailed Aug. 27. 

On Aug. 29 a sloop was sighted off the harbor, and the Boston 
Packet and Tyng’s lieutenant in the Bonetta went in chase. These 
entries of an anonymous diarist may refer to the same occurrences 
that Craft gives under the dates of Aug. 27 and 28. A sloop came 
into Louisbourg on the 30th. She had been taken by the privateer 
sloop which was chased by the Boston Packet. The Boston Packet 
came into Louisbourg about noon, but sailed immediately. 

A ship was sighted off Louisbourg on the 31st, and six men-of-war 
went in chase. The ship Massachusetts sailed from Louisbourg Aug. 
31 for Boston, where she arrived Sept. 7, after a six days 7 trip. She 
sailed again for Louisbourg on or after Sept. 13. Captain Lais, in a 
sloop with 60 or 70 men, sailed on the 31st for Connecticut. 

Captain Spry, in a sloop, and the Resolution , Captain Richardson 
(or, according to Craft, Tucker’s sloop), sailed in pursuit of a French 
privateer on Sept. 1. The Resolution ran afoul of a vessel at night, 
but, after getting clear, followed her until daylight, when she took 
the chase as a prize. This was a Carolina rice ship of 14 guns, that 
had been taken by De Salvert’s squadron three weeks before, east 
of Newfoundland. Captain Richardson brought her into Louisbourg 
on the 3d. She was the ship that was off Louisbourg on Saturday, 
Aug. 31, and had a cargo of rice, pitch, and tar. From her it was 
learned that the Renommte had returned to Brest and sailed again 
with De Salvert’s squadron on July 6. The sloop Union , Captain 
May hew, was in Louisbourg Harbor on Sept. 3. 

Captain Spry returned to Louisbourg Sept. 4, and a sloop and 
schooner sailed to cruise off Scatarie. The Resolution , Captain Rich¬ 
ardson, was ordered to Annapolis on the 4th, and probably sailed 
on the 5th. She carried despatches in regard to De Salvert’s presence, 
and was to go from Annapolis to the Harbor of Grand Passage, 10 
leagues to the west of Annapolis, where she was to remain until 
Sept. 30, all the while on the watch for the approach of the French 
fleet. If it appeared, a whaleboat was to be sent to Annapolis and the 
Resolution was to return immediately to Louisbourg. Captain Clark, 
on his way from Louisbourg to Boston, put into Canso Sept. 8. 

A schooner from Rhode Island arrived at Louisbourg Sept. 8, 
having sighted De Salvert’s squadron of five topsail vessels and one 
small one off Cape Sable on the 4th. 

On Sept. 9 the Tartar , Captain Fones, arrived from Newfoundland, 
and Captain Miles came in from Connecticut. 

The Boston Packet was sent on the 10th to Cape Sable, to look for 
the French fleet, and returned Sept. 25. A vessel arrived from 
Beaubassin in the Gut of Canso on the 13th, and Colonel Gorham 
sailed for Beaubassin the next day. 

Capt. Aaron Bull sailed from Louisbourg for Connecticut on the 
19th. Captain Sanford sailed for New York on the 22d, and on the 
23d Captain Bingham arrived in a sloop from New London and a 


31 


brig arrived from New York. Colonel Gorham returned from the 
Bay of Vert on the 24th. 

The Shirley , Captain Rous, arrived from England on the 24th, after a 
voyage of four weeks. She fired fifteen guns, and the Superb answered 
with thirteen guns. At 3 P.M. Commodore Warren raised his flag as 
Rear Admiral of the Blue, amidst the salutes of the ships and forts. 

Several of the Colonial war vessels had already been discharged 
from service. The time of battles, of attacks, and of rich prizes had 
passed. The vessels still retained in service were thenceforth to have 
the dull lot of an army of occupation. 


THE MURRAY PRINTING COMPANY 
KENDALL SQUARE 
CAMBRIDGE 








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